Developers Access US Census Data

The U.S. Census Bureau has released an Application Programming Interface (API) for developers to make use of demographic, social-economic, and housing statistics.

The API lets developers customize statistics into Web or mobile apps from the 2012 Census (which includes detailed statistics on population, age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, household relationship and owner/renter status, for a variety of geographic areas down to the level of census tracts and blocks) and the 2006-2010 American Community Survey (which includes detailed statistics on a rich assortment of topics (education, income, employment, commuting, occupation, housing characteristics and more) down to the level of census tracts and block groups.)

Developers will be able to use the API in a variety of ways including showing commuting patterns, or displaying the latest numbers on owners and renters in specific neighborhoods. One Web apps that has already been created (more are available within the Bureau’s app gallery) is an Age Finder which shows the count of the population for a single year of age or a customized age range by sex, race for states, counties and places),

“We hope to see many apps grow out of the Census API, as this opens up our statistics beyond traditional uses,” Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said. “The API gives data developers in research, business and government the means to customize our statistics into an app that their audiences and customers need.”